Shiva Ahmadi was born in 1975 in Tehran, Iran. She lived through the Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, and then the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to August 1988. She received a BA in 1999 from Azad University, founded on May 21, 1982. She moved to the United States to attend graduate school, and she received an MFA in drawing (2003) from Wayne State University in Detroit. She completed a residency in painting and sculpture at the Skowhegan School in Maine, and she received a second MFA in 2005 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. 

When the United States bombed Iran in 1999, the same year she came to America, Amadi’s traumatic childhood memories flooded back. The style and themes of her art took a new direction. The traditional art of Iran, the Persian miniature, had seemed to Ahmadi “kitsch and ugly and old.” But she turned to them: “I became an obsessed student. I like to make the surface look very colorful and vibrant. I used it as a tool to deceive and get people to pay attention to the story hidden in there.”

 

“Untitled #6” (2012) (10”x8”) (watercolor) is from the series Thrones for Sale. The chaos of war, regime changes that inevitably became corrupt, and the situation in her homeland and the world at large, have become major influences on her work. “In Iran we have a Supreme Leader. His decisions affect people’s lives directly. He is a king, a monarch, a dictator. His minions, even though they know he is wrong, still support him.”  In “Untitled #6” a male figure is seated in the Buddhist lotus position, ironically the pose of meditation. He wears a black and white checked keffiyeh. Abadi combines the Persian tradition of the turban with the Islamic scarf tradition. The keffiyeh was for protection from sunburn, dust, and sand. In the 20th Century, it has become a symbol for support of the Islamic Republic and its ideas.

The flaming golden halo is a traditional image representing Mohammad in Persian manuscripts. However, Abadi’s halo contains the red flames of a destructive fire. The faces of her figures are always covered in blood. The male figure holds a bomb in his right hand. The throne is painted in gold and decorated with patterns from ancient Persian manuscripts. The throne is a wall with protective spikes. The throne appears to float in space on an enormous lotus blossom. The lotus flower is a significant symbol in several Eastern religions. Lotus flowers grow in mucky water, but they emerge unblemished and beautiful. The flowers close at night, receding into the muddy water, and they return as the sun rises. They are symbols of rebirth, resilience, and strength. Abadi’s painting presents the contradiction and tension of the modern world. 

A closer look at the image also reveals an irregular pattern in the cream-colored background. Abadi creates additional tension by sprinkling hair, rice, and salt granules randomly on the page before painting the color. She often employs this technique.

 

The Iranian economy depends on oil sales. The oppressive Iranian political regime controls everything. “Oil Barrel No. 5” (2009) (34.5’’ tall) (oil paint on steel) is one of a series of recycled steel oil barrels she painted with elaborate Persian miniature elements, including gold leafy vines and red and white flowers. Gold shields have large ragged holes torn in them from which blood, not oil, flows. Ahmadi paints animals from Persian miniatures, but they are abstracted and distorted. The white-horned figure at the right has the feet of a prancing horse, a blood-red mask for a face, and an abstract figurative element behind it. At the left, a headless brown horse, seen from the rear, charges into a headless yellow and gold striped animal.  Its coloring suggests it is a leopard, but its shape resembles a horse. White lines, representing ropes, circle the figures. White arrows or spears fly in various directions. Chaos and danger are suggested within the brilliantly colored scene. Ahmadi’s oil barrels are in museums and private collections around the world.

Ahmadi also has decorated pressure cookers, inspired by terrorists’ use of pressure cooker bombs beginning in 2010. She saw the irony of a domestic item used to feed people being used to murder them. She commented that her images from Persian and Indian miniatures were “illustrating heroic stories from Islamic mythology and the Koran. Beauty and chaos, good and evil–it is all here. Our world is a bundle of contradictions.” She ordered the pressure cookers from Amazon.

 

“Pipes” (2013) (41”x61’’) (watercolor) (Metropolitan Museum) contains many of Ahmadi’s artistic elements. Her choice of watercolor as a medium is more apparent in this larger work: “You can’t erase anything or paint over the water…water runs and is out of control. It is transparent, temperamental, and honest…If I make a mistake, I can’t do anything about it, which makes it scary but at the same time exciting. I don’t think there is any other medium that shows instability better than water.” Flowing from the green carpet is a large puddle of red paint, or is it blood? 

The painting has her characteristic mottled beige background. A ruler sits on a Persian carpet under an elaborate Persian canopy. Minions pay homage to the leader. However, the minions have either monkey faces or faces covered in blood. All the figures hold grenades or bombs. The “Pipes” represent an oil refinery that floats in the air. Birds, arrows, spears, and ropes are scattered throughout the painting. On top of the canopy, a horse’s legs are impossibly conjoined. At the lower left, one four-legged animal appears to be nursing or biting a second animal. Both of their heads are covered with blood. Ahmadi explains her painting: “They are about the chaos and the instability in the world right now, whether it is in the Middle East or elsewhere.” 

“Untitled 5” (2014) (30”x22’’) (graphite and ink on paper) is from a series of drawings.  The angels are common figures in Persian miniatures. She

describes the series: “Whoever gets into power, they get the bomb in their hands and just play around with it, with no regard for people’s lives.” 

 

The “Strait of Hormuz” (2018) (40”x60’’) (watercolor) is a reference to one of the most important strategic pathways for international trade. It is 90 nautical miles long and varies in width from 21 to 52 nautical miles. Twenty-one million barrels of oil, over $1 billion, were shipped through the Strait every day. Iran has threatened over the years to close the Strait. To protest America’s proposed sanctions, Iran, for the first time, tested a missile in August 2018. 

The sapphire blue of the Strait flows down the center of the composition. Chaotic images are placed on either side. At the top left, a monkey man fiddles with the tanks and tubes of a nuclear or oil plant. At the bottom left, is a grouping of abstract wheels, blood, and a monkey man desperately holding onto a rope. More wheels, ropes, monkeys, blood, and a toppled horse are tangled under a canopy at the upper right. In the middle of the Strait, a prancing horse with bones for a head carries a golden goblet full of richly colored abstract patterns. At the lower right, two monkey-men figures walk away triumphantly lifting abstract trophies into the air. Interpretation of Ahmadi’s work is ultimately left up to the viewer. She stated in a 2020 interview, “One of the books I read during this time [her childhood] was the Farsi version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. What I loved most was the allegory and how the message was hidden and wrapped in layers and conveyed through animals.”

Ahmadi became an Associate Professor of Art at the University of California at Davis in 2015, and she now lives in the Bay Area. She was one of ten women awarded the prestigious Anonymous Was A Woman award in 2016. The award included a $25,000 grant. Her works also include animated videos and ceramics. She said, “Ceramic is clay, and clay is the land. And the land is what I am worried about all the time.”  

A recent theme in Ahmadi’s work was inspired by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs Wade in June 2022, and the arrest, beating, and death of Mahsa Amini (September 16, 2022) in Iran for not wearing the proper Islamic hajib, required for all females from age six. During the pandemic, she made rapid watercolor drawings.  She said, “Then I realized, ‘Oh look, they’re all women. It was unconscious. They’re scarred, missing arms and legs. But they’re still standing and strong.”

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

If your birth month is May, your flower is the Lily-of-the-Valley. It has been a symbol of purity, love, happiness, motherhood, and luck since ancient times in Greece. In mythology, Apollo created flowers to provide a soft carpet for nymphs as they traveled through the forests of Mt. Olympus. The low-growing flower was sweet smelling, and it was the favorite scent of many royals, including Queen Elizabeth II. Lily-of-the-valley is used today in perfumes created by Estee Lauder and Christian Dior. 

Albrecht Durer Lucas (1828-1919) painted “Lily-of-the-Valley” (1886) (8”x6”). A British still-life painter, he was the son of a sculptor, but we know little about his education and life. He is known for his detailed still-life paintings of flowers. Although a small plant, the Lily-of-the-Valley commands more than half the painting. The plant’s smooth green leaves, with characteristic pointed ends, can grow up to nine inches long and four inches wide. The white bell-shaped flowers grow from one side of a single arching stem that bends gracefully to one side. Lucas placed the lily-of-the valley in a woodland valley, the natural habitat, with ferns that have not yet turned green. Since the lily-of-the valley appears early in the spring, it is associated with happiness and new beginnings. 

Lucas’s small, detailed paintings were shown at the Royal Institute of London, dedicated to scientific education and research. He also exhibited with the Royal Society of British Artists, established in 1823 by artists as an alternative to the Royal Academy.

“Lily-of -the-Valley” (1899) (10”x8”) is by British illustrator Walter Crane (1845-1915) is the subject of Flora’s Feast: A Masque of Flowers, a poem he wrote and illustrated. The poem begins: “The sullen winter nearly spent, Queen Flora to her garden went/to call the flowers from their long sleep/the year’s glad festivals to keep.” Crane illustrated his poem with over thirty flowers. Flora encounters “The little Lilies of the Vale, White ladies delicate and pale.” 

 A Celtic myth tells of the lily-of-the-valley that fell in love with the song of a nightingale. When the nightingale stopped singing, the flower wilted and died, but on the nightingales return in May, the flower bloomed again with joy. References to the lily-of-the-valley and the month of May can be found in the Song of Solomon 2:1-2: “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley. Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.” 

France celebrates La Fete du Muguet (lily-of-the-valley) on the first day of May. King Charles IX began the tradition in 1560 when he was given a sprig of lily-of-the-valley as a lucky charm.  He was inspired to give one to each if the ladies of his court every year on May 1. 

 

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) painted “Lilies-of-the-Valley” (1916) (42”x34”) (oil). He was born in Russia and studied art in St. Petersburg. He was able to go to Paris in 1910 to study art, and he stayed there until 1914. Chagall was a romantic, and very much in love with his wife Bella. Bouquets of flowers were prevalent in his work.  He painted “Lilies-of-the-Valley” while he and his wife were in Russia during World War 1. This exuberant display takes up the entire painting.  The flowers appear to be a gift. They are wrapped in a bright green container, tied with a pink ribbon with two large pink flowers. This painting brightens the home, and brings joy in the absence of real flowers.

 

If your birthday falls between May 21 and June 20, your Native American totem animal is the deer, representing fertility, sensitivity, intuition, and gentleness. Deer have held a specific place in human evolution since the beginning of time. The images in “Three Deer” (15,000 BCE) were found in the Paleolithic caves in Lascaux, France. The deer are well-drawn and each has a large rack of antlers. The deer, lowest in the group and drawn with both black and tan coloring, is a pregnant female. The number of pregnant females in the cave shows how important fertility was at the time. In the cultures of the Middle East, male deer are also depicted on structures to represent protectiveness. Christianity recognizes the deer as a spiritual messenger: “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.” (Psalms 18:33)

“Deer in Repose” (1867) (40”x32’’) (oil) was painted by Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899). Internationally known for her animal paintings. Bonheur depicts a family of deer resting peacefully in a forest, sunlight falling on them through the leaves. The stag, doe, and two fawns are the image of fertility and gentleness.

 

Deer are a major part of Native American mythology.  The Creek, Cherokee, Chippewa, Chickasaw, Huron, Iroquois, Osage, Shawnee, Navaho, Omaha, Seminole, Choctaw, Pawnee, Ojibwe, and Lakota believe in the myth of Deer Woman. She is one of the “little people,” like the elves and fairies. Deer Woman helps to keep human society under control by punishing those who harm others, particularly those who harm women and children. The deer’s antlers that reach skyward are considered sacred. When the antlers fall off, they grow again, a symbol of regeneration. Many tribes have Deer Clans within the tribe and Deer Dances are common. 

“Deer Dance Kachina” (1973) (6”x5”x6”) is a doll made by the Hopi of Arizona. When young Hopi children reach the age of six, they enter the kachina religious tradition. Kachina dolls are made in the image of the many Kachina Spirits. The “Deer Dance Kachina” teaches the children the necessity of respecting the deer spirit to increase the deer population as a continuing source of food. The doll is carved from natural materials, and it is in a dancing pose. The antlers protruding from the head, and the black nose and mouth are prominent features. The dancer holds a stick in each hand to represent the front legs of the deer. Feathers are placed around the dancer’s head, and a bright green juniper collar circles his neck. Bells circle his legs, adding sound to the dance. Hopi children learn the stories of the various kachinas and are taught to revere the kachina spirits. 

Note: Lily-of-the-valley is poisonous to humans if eaten. However, fairies are said to drink from the flower’s cup. 

Artists frequently have painted their mothers. The best-known painting is James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s of his mother. It has become an icon.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His parents were Anna Matilda McNeill and George Washington Whistler, a widower with three children. Anna and George had an additional five children, but only two lived to be adults: James and his brother William. Whistler’s father was a civil engineer who was commissioned to build the railroad between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Whistler received his first art lessons when his mother enrolled him in the Imperial Academy of Art in St. Petersburg. His father died in Russia in 1849, and the family returned to Connecticut. Although they were poor, Anna saw that her sons were educated in private schools. Anna moved to London in 1863 and lived with James, near his studio. She was religious and a conservative, but she tolerated James’s flamboyant life style and even made friends with some of his friends. Whistler ended letters to his mother with “your fond though faulty son.”

“Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1” (1871) (57”x64’’) (oil) was the title Whistler gave to the painting. He was interested in creating “art for art’s sake.” He previously had painted three works of his mistress in 1862, 1864, and 1865-67, and he gave them all the title “Symphony in White No. 1” and “No. 2” and “No. 3.”  Whistler said about the painting of his mother, “Take the picture of my mother, exhibited at the Royal Academy as an ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black.’ Now that is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?” 

The painting of his mother came about when the model became ill, and Whistler asked his mother to pose instead. He had wanted the figure to stand, but Anna found it too tiring, so he posed her sitting, her feet on a hassock. She is dressed in a black mourning dress with white lace cuffs and a white lace cap and handkerchief. She is frail, but sits erect. She often is described as having been painted with great tenderness but also with a strong will. The painting is set in an empty room with grey walls. The picture on the wall appears to be one of Whistler’s landscapes. The black, white, and grey patterned curtain is Japanese kimono fabric. 

Anna Whistler believed the portrait was a tribute to her, and she referred to it as “my painting.” It was first exhibited in the 1872 London Royal Academy Exhibition. A London Times review said what most people and critics were thinking: “An artist who could deal with large masses so grandly might have shown a little less severity, and thrown in a few details of interest without offense.” 

Whistler said he would never part with the painting, but during periods of financial difficulty, he used it as collateral for loans. Anna Whistler died in 1881. When Whistler’s financial situation became desperate, he finally sold the piece to the French state in 1891 for the Musee du Luxembourg in Paris. “Whistler’s Mother” was the first American painting in the Louvre. 

Rembrandt (1606-1669) painted and drew his mother several times, and she was a frequent model for his students. His father was Haarmen Gerritszoon van Rijn, a miller, and his mother was Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuijtbrouck (1568-1640), the daughter of a baker. Rembrandt was their ninth child. He opened a studio in Leiden in 1625, and he left for Amsterdam at the end of 1631. “Rembrandt’s Mother” (1639) is one of the portraits of his elderly mother. She bends over slightly with age. Her face is that of a gentlewoman, with papery skin and wrinkles. He dressed the figure in a warm fur cape with fringe. An elaborate gold clasp decorates the dress. Rembrandt’s mother was a devout Catholic, and with hands folded, she appears to be praying.

Rembrandt developed his craft during his time in Leiden.  His mother was a free and available model, and one he included in his religious paintings. The subject of the painting “Tobit and Anna with the Kid” (1626) (16”x12’’) (oil) was taken from the Apocryphal Gospels (Book of Tobit 2:11-14). Rembrandt’s mother was the model for Anna. The painting depicts the incident when Tobit, who has been struck blind, hears the kid bleating and accuses Anna of having stolen it. Anna looks at Tobit in disbelief that he would think such a thing of her. 

Even though this is an early work by Rembrandt, his artistic skills are finely honed. His ability to depict elderly people and emotional expression was exceptional. Tobit’s blind eyes, forehead wrinkles, and praying hands with popping veins add to the emotion of the work. Anna’s tough skin and wrinkled face, reddened eyes, and strong hands holding the heavy and wriggling goat are painted masterfully. The cramped room adds to the tension between the couple. Rembrandt has included several domestic details: onions hanging by the window, a basket hanging on the wall, pots and jugs on the back wall, Tobit’s cane, dog, and a small fire. They once had money, but lost it. Tobit’s fine clothes are tattered, and his shoes are ruined.

“Woman with Plants” (1929) was painted by American Regionalist artist Grant Wood (1891-1942) of Iowa. Wood’s mother Hattie DeWitte Weaver Wood was 71 when this work was painted. She moved the family to Cedar Rapids after the death of her husband. Wood was developing his style and concentrated on the portrait, leaving the background somewhat ambiguous. The Woods were simple farmers. Hattie is dressed in a plain black top and a starched and ironed green apron with white rickrack trim.  Her pearl earrings and a cameo brooch are a dressed-up touch. Her grey hair is simply styled. Her hands and face are a study of age.  

Hattie holds a clay pot with a sansevieria plant, a plant found in many homes at the time. It is a hardy succulent that stands upright. The plant has been described as steadfast, like Wood’s mother. She was a woman one could count on. Hattie lived with her son in Cedar Rapids from 1922 until 1935. 

Happy Mother’s Day

 

Sliman Mansour was born in 1947 in Birzeit, a small village north of Ramallah. He is an internationally recognized Palestinian artist. He studied art at Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem from 1967 until 1970. Mansour believes in sumud, Palestinian ideology that values steadfastness and perseverance.  Sumud for Palestinians comes from their long history of rootedness in their land and their culture.  The concept emerged as a result of the Six-Day War in June 1967, when the coalition of Arab states Egypt, Syria, and Jordan lost the Golan Heights and the Jordanian West Bank to Israel. As a result, 325,000 Palestinians and 100,000 Syrians were expelled or fled from the West Bank. Mansour’s oil paintings demonstrate his love of his homeland and the beauty, resilience, and hopes of the Palestinian people.

Mansour developed a set of cultural and historical symbols to depict Palestinian identity. In “The Daughter of Jerusalem” (1978) (28”x21”) (oil) a young Palestinian woman, wearing a dress with traditional Palestinian embroidery, stands in a barren desert that represents the land to which Palestinians are tied, but no longer theirs. She stands silent and still, but tall. On her head, in the shape of an open eye, is a picture of the city of Jerusalem. The gold dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third most holy structure in Islam, is placed at the center of the eye. Also known as the Dome of the Rock, the mosque is located on Temple Mount, also sacred to Jews and Christians. The eye shape refers to the Arab saying that a loved one is the pupil of one’s eye. 

In “Yaffa” (1979) (22”x19”) (print) a beautiful woman in a traditional Palestinian dress carries a large basket of oranges. Other women are picking oranges from the abundant trees. Orange trees, another symbol of Palestinian loss, are depicted frequently in Mansour’s paintings. Yaffa was a prosperous commercial port in Palestine, but it became a part of Israel in 1948 when Israel officially became a state on May 14, 1948. Mansour remembers the fields of oranges, and he wants viewers to see Palestinians as beautiful, peaceful people in a prosperous land. 

Mansour recalls in an interview in the 1980’s, “They gave us rules like that we should not paint in certain colors. That we should not paint in red, green, black, and white. This rule was published in newspapers and everywhere, including in Israel.” The Palestinian flag contains four colors. The New Visions movement (1987-1993) was the Palestinian artists’ response to the first Intifada. They boycotted Israeli art supplies, looking instead for natural dyes such as coffee, henna, and clay to create their work. “I Ismael” (1997) (79”x32”) (mud & acrylic) was Mansour’s response: “The mud came from my childhood memories. As a child, I used to work with my grandmother when she was building beehives and even ovens with mud. And I was always around her, trying to help. So, when I thought about material that I could use, mud was the first thing that came to my mind. After a while, once I started making figures, I realized that the mud also reflects the human fate with the cracks, people waiting to disappear, fall down and go away.”

“I Ismael” consists of six male figures created from mud. The title of the work refers to the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar taken from Genesis thought to be unable to bear children, Abraham’s elderly wife Sarah gave her young maidservant Hagar to her husband as a concubine. Hagar bore him a son Ismael.  As Abraham’s firstborn, he had the right of inheritance. Unexpectedly, Sarah gave birth to Isaac a few years later. To keep Ismael from his inheritance, Sarah convinced Abraham to exile Hagar and Ismael from their homeland, as Palestinians were from theirs.  

 In a 2002 exhibition, Mansour added “Garden of Hope” (2002), a bed of dry clay at the base of “I Ismael.” He painted on the surface large red flowers with green leaves

In “Memory of Places” (2009) (54”x46”) (oil) Mansour depicts an elderly Palestinian man standing in front of a Birzeit landscape. Stone terraces are filled with olive trees, Palestinians’ main income source. Olive trees, with gnarled trunks and silvery green leaves, cover the hills. Mansour depicts a land full of life, but it is now only a memory of the past.  The fields are run down and filled with weeds, since the Palestinians were prohibited from bringing in machinery to maintain the olive groves. 

“Jamal Al-Mahlal” (Camel of Heavy Burdens) is one of Mansour’s most famous paintings. He made the original oil painting in1973. It also is known as the “Palestinian Porter.” The old Palestinian man carries a large pack on his back. The pack is in the shape of an eye, and the city of Jerusalem is depicted on it. He walks in a barren landscape. The pack is a heavy burden, and he bends under its weight. Palestinians carry this priceless memory of Jerusalem with them. The original painting was a gift to Muammar Gaddafi from the Libyan ambassador in London. The painting was destroyed in American air strikes in Libya in 1986. The first posters of the image were made in 1975.

Mansour, having lost the original painting, repainted it with the name “Camel of Heavy Burden” in 2005. He added the image of the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The painting became an icon, and posters, cards, stickers, and T-shirts carried the image. 

Mansour has promoted Palestinian art since 1973, when he co-founded the League of Palestinian Artists. A lecturer and teacher, he co-founded the al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem in 1994. His work has been exhibited in several Arab countries, and in Paris, New York, Norway, and Asia. He was awarded in 1988 the Grand Nile Prize in the Seventh Cairo Biennial as well as the Palestine Prize for the Visual Arts. In 2019 he received the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. He co-authored the book Both Sides of Peace: Israeli and Palestinian Political Poster Art, published in 1998 by the University of Washington Press. 

Mansour works for peace and equality, and he supports a two-state solution. In a 2014 interview, he said, “I hope, I hope. I would love to have my art make a change in the world about Palestinians, because they want to dehumanize Palestinians, I hope and I think my art helps a little bit in changing the idea.”

Birds’ Head Haggadah (c. 1300)

This year the Jewish celebration of Passover begins at sundown on April 22, and it ends after nightfall on April 30. Two Seder dinners will be held during Passover, and the Haggadah will be read to tell the story of the delivery of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The oldest extant illuminated Ashkenazi Haggadah is the Birds’ Head Haggadah (c.1300), copied and illustrated by the scribe Menahem. Not a scroll but a book, the Birds’ Head Haggadah measures 11’’x7.2’’ and contains 47 pages on parchment. Dark brown ink was used to write the text and outline the illustrations. Tempera was applied for color. 

The celebration of Passover is found in Exodus 12:1-28. Several scenes illustrate preparation for the Seder meal. “In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.” (Exodus 12:18) The two-page illumination of making matzo starts on the right side of the page where a woman, wearing a red snood, has processed the grain. Since the original Passover occurred during the barley harvest season, matzo may have been made by mixing water with ground barley. Matzo is a flat unleavened bread. The figure in yellow is poking holes in the bread so it will not rise. The second woman with the red snood and the man in the green robe are saying a prayer over the matzo. On the next page, the man in the blue robe holds a tray of three matzo loaves, while the last figure in a red robe is baking the matzo. Since the Israelites needed to leave Egypt quickly, they had no time to allow the bread to rise.

The attire of the figures is interesting. They wear clothing appropriate to the time, but the male figures wear peaked hats. The fourth Lateran Council in 215 CE declared that male Jews must wear peaked Jewish hats. The heads of the Jews are represented by bird heads, thus the name of this Haggadah. The reason for this substitution is most likely a result of Jewish aniconism that forbids idolatry, the depiction of graven images. The bird heads have noticeably sharp beaks, which has led to speculation about the type of bird.

At the far right of the Passover Seder, a man brings in the Paschel (Passover) lamb. “Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.” (Exodus 12:3) “The animals you choose must be year old males without defect.” (Exodus 12:5) The lamb can be identified as a male by it yellow horns. The lamb was not to be eaten with water, must have been roasted, and no bones broken. “Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the meat.” (Exodus 12: 8) “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every first born—both man and animal.” (Exodus 12:12) The man with the lamb also holds a cup. 

Five Jews are seated at the table, and each holds a cup representing one of the necessary components for the Seder plate. Unfortunately, the items are not illustrated. However, the first item on a Seder plate is the lamb shank. The second item is a roasted egg, a symbol of mourning, the first food served after a funeral. Bitter herbs or horseradish are the third item on the plate, and they represent the harshness of slavery in Egypt. Forth is haroset, a sweet brown mixture that is a symbol of the bricks and mortar used to build Egyptian structures. Fifth is a fresh green vegetable that is dipped in salt water, representing hope and renewal.

The illumination of the Exodus covers two-pages. On the left page, Moses in the red robe and holding his staff, leads the Israelites. Behind him, four figures, with their heads raised toward heaven, carry their belongings as they leave Egypt. Two figures hold the matza. On the next page, the Pharoah, on horseback, is dressed as a European King. A knight carries a standard. The faces of the non-Jews, without bird beaks, lack features. 

Two Jews, one on horseback, follow. Behind them is a carriage and some Egyptian soldiers. In the Birds’ Head Haggadah most of the men wear Jewish peaked hats, but not all do. 

 

Crossing the Red Sea might seem a difficult event to depict. Menachem has settled on a simple and effective solution. Moses lowers his staff and the water parts, allowing the Israelites to cross. 

 

The Exodus story tells that the Israelites grumbled because they had no food, and God heard their cries. “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” (Exodus 16:4) Two men lean down to gather the yellow, green, and red manna, the bread of Heaven. “That evening quail came and covered the camp” (Exodus 16:13). A red quail can be seen in the center of the illumination. The hands of God, extending from heaven, offer what appears to be matza. 

On the first page of the Birds’ Head Haggadah, a man and woman sit at the Seder table. The woman passes him matzo to begin the ritual. The last page contains a depiction of the rebuilt Temple of Jerusalem.

Note: Matzo is the Ashkenazi pronunciation which deletes the letter “h” from the end of the word. Matzah can be found in both Ashkenazic and Sephardic texts.

Quotes from the Book of Exodus are taken from the New International Version of the Holy Bible.

If you were born during the month of April, the daisy is your birth flower. Ancient Egyptians grew daisies for their medicinal value. Eating daisies was thought to relieve the pain of stomach ulcers and gout. King Henry VIII of England used them for that purpose. A Roman myth tells of Vertumnus, the god of seasons, gardens, and orchards, who saw Belides, the nymph protector of the forest, fell in love with her, and pursued her relentlessly.  In desperation, she turned herself into a daisy. The daisy’s scientific name Bellis was derived from this story. 

The daisy is a symbol of innocence, purity, and true love.  In “Girl and Daisies” (1878) (watercolor), by American artist Winslow Homer, a young woman sits among white daisies in a field on a sunny afternoon. Pensive, she reaches out to touch a daisy. No one is near, the day is calm, and her thoughts are her own. What is she thinking about? Homer invites the viewer to sit quietly with her among the flowers. The daisy is a composite flower, two flowers in one, in perfect harmony, representing true love. Perhaps that is what she ponders.  

Homer painted “Girl and Daisies” shortly after the end of the Civil War. His focus at the time was on farms, fields, flowers, children, and other simple things. Americans were nostalgic for the pre-Civil War life. Homer had been on the front lines from 1861 until 1865, covering War for Harper’s New Monthly Magazine.

“The Crown of Daisies” (1905-06) (29’’x22’’) was painted by French artist Maurice Denis (1870-1943), a member of the Nabi, a group of artists who wanted to make art in a style that combined both art and decoration. They were influenced by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. “The Crown of Daisies” is a depiction of a young married woman and her child, a simple subject drawn from everyday life, but painted in a highly decorative style. He uses Seurat’s pointillist technique to create the dresses of the two women, and parts of the background wall, window, and the houses visible through the window. The large leaves outside the window are painted in silhouette, and the very distant landscape and sky are rendered without dots. By mixing the decorative devices, Denis has created a charming painting. 

In England, the daisy was called “day’s eye” because its petals close over the yellow center at night, and open as day beings. Young girls often wore crowns of daisies. Yellow daisies were symbols of joy, optimism, and friendship. Blue daisies represented loyalty, honesty, and trust. In Victorian flower symbolism the daisy could also mean “your secret is safe with me.” Daisies pop open in the sun: “Ups-a-daisy” was an expression said to children to encourage them to get up after they fell. “Oopsy daisy” and “whoops-a-daisy” were used when someone made a mistake, or tripped. 

Henri Matisse’s painting “Daisies” (1939) (36”x26”) presents a modern take on the daisy. The pose of the lady in red suggests innocence, although the color red traditionally conveys the opposite. The nude female’s position suggests physical love. The idea of innocence and true love, communicated by the white daisies, and the blue daisies message of loyalty and trust most likely were not on Matisse’s mind when he made the painting. The lemons on the table have two different interpretations; they represent longevity, purification, love, friendship, and have the power to foil negative energies and the evil eye. They also are symbolic of disappointment and bitterness. The green vase is a Greek amphora that was used to hold oil, wine, milk, or grain. Matisse’s “Daisies” is a sensuous painting.

“Daisies” was painted in 1939, months before the Nazi invasion of Paris. Paul Rosenberg, a prominent art dealer, was forced to flee France, leaving behind his large art collection. “Daisies” was among the paintings seized by the Nazis. Thanks to the United States Army, “Daisies” was recovered and returned to Rosenberg. He placed it in his new gallery in New York City.

If you were born between April 20 and May 20, your Native American totem animal is the beaver. “American Beaver” (1844) (21”x27”) was one of 150 lithographs by John James Audubon and his sons, published in Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845-48). Beavers were observed to work hard, always in groups, to take care of the family, and to be determined to complete their work. For these reasons beavers were important animals in most Native American cultures for their persistence, perseverance, resourcefulness, and ability to adapt to situations. Several American Indian tribes had Beaver Clans, groups with matrilineal blood ties. Images of beavers were frequent on totem poles, masks, and on decorative objects worn on ceremonial occasions.

Audubon depicts two beavers communicating with each other by making sounds. They also communicated by slapping their tails. Audubon also has depicted the rich, thick fur coat that made the beaver a popular animal for trappers. 

“Beaver Totem Pole” (1976) (9 feet) (red cedar) was carved by Walter Harris (1931-2009). He was born in Kispiox, British Columbia. A wood carver, he attended the Gitanmaax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art in 1969, and he was a senior carving instructor at the school from 1972 until 1985. Harris’s image of the beaver follows the tradition of including large eyes, two very large front teeth, and both front legs raised with claws prominently displayed. In this work the claws hold pieces of wood. The beaver’s tail is decorated with a cross-hatch pattern. 

Harris is the hereditary Chief of the Village of Kispiox, where he carved and raised a totem pole sometime during 1970’s.  It was the first traditional totem pole raised in modern times.  He considers totem poles are the heart of Native American Culture: “They are our deeds to the land. They serve as witnesses to the encounter of our ancestors with the supernatural beings who control all the fish, animals, and plants in our world. They are our charter of rights from time immemorial.”

“Amik Beaver” (2017) (acrylic) was painted by Frank Polson (b.1952), a member of the Algonquin Long Point First Nations community. Polson remembers working with his father on his trap lines. He remembers drawing beaver and moose. He dropped out of art school several times, was incarcerated for five years in a federal prison, and finally found art again. He used house paint and old jeans and bedsheets for his canvas. Visitors started buying his art. Inspired by the lessons of the Native American elders, and his childhood memories, he has become a respected artist, and has created over 2,700 paintings.

Polson’s “Amik Beaver” falls into the category of “Woodland” style. Polson said, “I’ve adopted my artistic heritage in a way that my elders would have never imagined, expressing my aesthetic, political, and social views in a range of styles and media.” His use of color is dynamic, and his lines are forceful, similar to those found in ancient totem poles, masks, costumes, jewelry, and objects used in rituals. Polson has emphasized the beaver’s flat tail and its sharp claws. He chooses images of North-Western Quebec’s wildlife, and adds images from legends, rituals, and nature with the intent to “build a bridge between cultures.” 

The word amik in the Algonquin language means beaver. The beaver was the mascot of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. 

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

Edward Hicks (1780-1849) was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His father was a Loyalist who lost all his money in the American Revolution. Edward’s mother died when he was eighteen months old, and he was raised by his mother’s close friend, a Quaker. Hicks’s artistic training consisted of learning to paint decorations on coaches. In his memoirs Hicks described himself as “a weak, wayward young man…exceedingly fond of singing, dancing, vain amusements, and the company of young people, and too often profanely swearing.”

Unhappy, Hicks began to attend Quaker meetings, and he was accepted as a Quaker in 1803. He married Sarah Worstall, a Quaker. Hicks had become a minister by 1812, and an itinerant Quaker preacher in the Philadelphia area by 1813.  He turned to painting as a means of earning additional support for his family. A devout Quaker, whose religion considered painting a luxury and a worldly indulgence, Hicks made paintings that fell into the category of Folk Art, its subjects coming from deep cultural roots. He began painting the Peaceable Kingdom images in 1820 to show the Quaker belief that all people were equal and should live in peace. There are sixty-two extant works titled “Peaceable Kingdom.”

Hicks’s paintings on the theme of the peaceable kingdom often included quotes or thoughts about peace painted on the frame. “Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch” (1826-30) (29”x36”) illustrates Hicks’s style. His depiction of Jesus in this and other paintings shows he is more adept at painting animals than humans. However, the harmony between man and nature and the undeniable charm of the animals has made Hicks an American favorite. 

Jesus has one arm around the lion’s neck and holds out a branch in His hand. Although it may not look like an olive branch, the title of the work indicates the artist’s intent. He relied on the Bible for his subject matter. The Old Testament book of Genesis (8:11) tells of the dove having returned to Noah’s ark with an olive branch in its beak, the act of extending an olive branch as a symbol of peace. Olive trees need to be nurtured for at least three years until they are old enough to produce olives. In other words, they need a peaceful environment to produce their precious fruit. A lamb, ox, and goat are among the animals depicted. 

Hicks has included a small tableau of William Penn, a fellow Quaker, and the Lenape Indians, set beneath the magnificent Natural Bridge near Lexington, Virginia. Hicks admired Penn, who wanted to live peacefully with the Lenape’s. The Lenape believed that land was a gift from the creator and that everyone should share it equally. Penn’s treaty with the Lenape was signed in 1682 and became a frequently used subject in Hicks’s paintings, sometimes the main subject.  

Hicks’s Peaceable Kingdom themes had several variations, but more similarities than differences. “A Peaceable Kingdom with Quakers Bearing Banners” (1829-30) (18”x24’’) is similar to “Peaceable Kingdon of the Branch” (1826-30). A small group of animals and a figure of Jesus in a pantaloon suit, popular children’s clothing at the time, are arranged at the right side of the canvas. Three clumps of olives are visible hanging from the branch.  William Penn, dressed in red, stands at the center of the group of Quakers holding a banner. On it is written “Mind the Light within. It is glad tidings of great joy. Peace on earth, goodwill to all men.” 

“Peaceable Kingdom” (1834) (30”x36’’) (National Gallery of Art) depicts the child Jesus, joined by two children, and a large group of animals. Isaiah (11:6) was the inspiration for all the Peaceable Kingdom paintings: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.”  Clearly visible at the left side of the canvas, Penn is trading with and negotiating his treaty with the Indians.

 

When Hicks was not painting Peaceable Kingdoms, he occasionally tried his hand at other religious themes. “American Noah’s Ark” (1846) (27”x30’’), exemplifies the development of his painting skills with time and practice. The panoramic landscape includes water and mountains, and dark roiling clouds of the coming storm. To the lion, sheep, and goats of his earlier paintings, Hicks added horses, zebras, giraffes, camels, elephants, hippos, birds, and more. The two humans overseeing the peaceful loading of the ark are tucked behind the giraffes and camels at the far left of the scene.

Hicks painted “Cornell Farm” (1848) (37”x49’’) (National Gallery of Art) when he was sixty-nine years old. He signed the painting with a long inscription at the bottom: “An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock OF JAMES C. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks County Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural Society, October 12, 1848, Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age.” The viewer can appreciate Hicks’s ability with perspective, creating the rolling green fields, the farmhouse and barn, and the slightly crooked rows of the planted fields in the distance. He placed a small number of figures throughout the landscape, their size decreasing size as they stand farther in the distance. And then there are the herds of horses, cows, and sheep parading across the foreground. They are an orderly group, delightful to see. Hicks made tried to make each animal three-dimensional by painting all four of its legs, but their bodies remain flat. Not to be missed are the overly large black pigs behind the animal parade. 

Near the end of his life, Hicks described himself as “a poor old worthless insignificant painter.” The joy he has brought to generations of viewers would indicate that Hicks was far too modest.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

American artist Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) was born in Chester, Maryland. His father died when Charles was thirteen, and he was apprenticed to a saddle maker. He opened his own saddle shop, but it failed. He tried a career fixing clocks. That failed too. At last, he turned to painting, and he became one of America’s premier painters. 

Peale’s talent was recognized by artists John Singleton Copley and John Hesselius.  With their help and that of Peale’s friend John Beale Bordley, they raised the funds to send Peale to London to study with American artist Benjamin West from 1767 until 1769. The painting “John Beale Bordley” (1770) (80”x58’’) (National Gallery of Art) is one of several portraits Peale painted of the Bordley family. Both men were supporters of the Sons of Liberty. Bordley commissioned this portrait to show America’s strength and desire for equal treatment by the British. It was to be exhibited in London.

John Beale Bordley, the ancestor of the Bordley family whose store at the corner of High and Cross Streets in Chestertown that today houses the Historical Society of Kent County, owned a plantation on Wye Island. The peach tree at his right and the packhorses at the far left of the portrait were symbols of American abundance. The flock of sheep grazing beneath the peach tree demonstrated that America was not dependent on English sheep and British woolens. Bordley was a trained lawyer, judge, and member of the Governor’s Council. He stands with left arm resting on a law book and his right hand raised as if he were debating colonial rights under British law that often were ignored. The torn legal document at this his feet signifies his regard for British law. Completing the scene, a statue of British Liberty holds the scale of justice. At the base of the statue is American jimson weed, also known as Devil’s snare, a poisonous plant, to remind the British that the attack on American liberties could be deadly.

Peale returned from London in 1769 and settled in Annapolis. He moved to Philadelphia in 1775 and set up a painting studio.  He painted John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin, among others. Peale painted Washington from life as early 1772, when Washington was a British Colonel. A member of the Sons of Liberty since 1764, Peale served in the Pennsylvania Militia holding the rank of captain by1776. He recruited for the army and participated in several battles. During the Revolutionary War, he made miniature portraits of many of the officers. After the war, he painted their portraits when he was able to return to painting full-time.

“Washington, Lafayette, and Tilghman at Yorktown” (1784) (93’’x64’’) (Maryland State House) was commissioned by the Maryland Legislature in 1783. This 1784 portrait is similar to the 1779 of Washington at the victories of Princeton and Trenton. Peale added the Marquis de Lafayette and Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman, born in Maryland. Tilghman served as Washington’s aide de camp from the Battle of Trenton to the Siege at Yorktown. Tilghman holds the rolled document announcing Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown. Washington entrusted Tilghman to deliver the news to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Tilghman wears his ceremonial sword that now is on display at the Maryland State House. In the distance, soldiers carry the American and Bourbon French flag. Tilghman married and returned to his mercantile business in Baltimore after the war. On Tilghman’s  death, Washington wrote to Tilghman’s father, “I can assure you Sir, with much truth, that after I had opportunities of becoming well acquainted with his worth, no man enjoyed a greater share of my esteem, affection and confidence than Colo. Tilghman…” 

 

 

Peale was commissioned to paint over 60 portraits of Washington, seven from life, and he painted over 1100 portraits, some of them of his family. “The Staircase Group’’ (1795) (90”x40”) (Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art) depicts two of his sons, Raphealle and Titian Ramsey. Employing the artistic device known as trompe-l’œil  (French for fool the eye), Peale depicts the two young men climbing a circular staircase, the stairsteps starting at the floor of the Museum.  A trompe-l’œil colonial dollar, crumpled on the first painted step, lies ready for someone to pick up.

Peale married three times. His first wife Rachel bore him ten children, and his second wife Elizabeth bore him six, his third wife Hannah helped raise them. Peale’s love of art is evident; he named most of his children after famous artists or famous persons: his sons after famous painters Raphaelle, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Titian; his daughters after famous painters Angelica Kauffmann, Sophonisba Anguissola, Rosalba Carriera, and Sibylla Miriam. His sons Benjamin Franklin and Charles Lennaeus Peale were named for the scientists.  Some of Peale’s children were successful painters. Peale’s sons Rembrandt and Rubens founded the Peale Museum in Baltimore in 1813. Peale’s sister-in-law Elizabeth Emerson Callister-Peale taught miniature painting at the Kent County Free School. She and Sarah Callister were hired in 1873 by Washington College in Chestertown to teach painting and drawing. They were the first women to be hired as teachers by an American college or university. Elizabeth designed the Great Seal of Washington College. 

 

 

Peale shared with both Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin a deep interest in natural phenomena. A friend sent him an 1801 news clipping about large bones found on a farm near Montgomery, New York. Jefferson tried to secure the find, but he was not successful. Peale acquired the rights to the excavation from land owner John Marsten for $200, new gowns for his wife and daughters, a gun for his son, and an additional $100. Peale arrived with 35 paid workers who carefully excavated the bones from the water-logged pit. He devised a pulley system to remove the water. He took great care to preserve the bones, developing methods that were not used before. In the painting, Peale wears yellow trousers, a white shirt, and a black coat. He stands with members of his family at the right side of the painting. He and his son Rembrandt hold a large drawing of one of the bones. In his diary, Peale told Marston, “…compleating the skeleton was an object of vast magnitude with me…” The exhumed mastodon was reported to be the world’s first fully articulated skeleton. 

 Peale founded the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1805. It was one of America’s first museums, housing hundreds of portraits, thousands of artifacts, fossils, life-sized wax statues, and archaeological objects. In “The Artist in His Museum” (1822) (104’’x80”) (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts), Peale proudly displays the long gallery, then on the 2nd floor of Independence Hall. The skeleton of the mastodon is set behind the red velvet drape; several large bones and a turkey fill the foreground space. His palette and brushes are placed on a green cloth on the table. Mounted birds can be seen on row of shelves, an American eagle at the top.  

“What more pleasing prospect can be opened to our view than the boundless field of nature? Not only comprehending the inhabitants of earth, sea, and air; but earth, sea, and air themselves—representing an inexhaustible fund for amusing and useful enquiry. (C.W. Peale, lecture, University of Pennsylvania, November 16, 1799) 

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

The Christian observance of the Last Supper is on Maundy Thursday this year, on March 28. Jesus and his disciples celebrated Jewish Pesach (Passover), the eve of the Israelite exodus from Egypt. The tradition was soon established by the early Christians who, before they had buildings for worship, observed the Last Supper weekly in their homes.

One of the earliest representations of the Last Supper was found in the Catacomb of Priscilla in a square chamber known as the Greek Chapel. “Breaking of the bread” (2nd century CE) (fresco) was painted on an of arch over an altar-tomb where the sacrament was performed. The images of the fresco are faint. However, experts have described the scene of seven people reclining on banqueting couches in the manner of the Romans. The Roman Catholic church holds that six men and one woman are present. The figure at the left, slightly separated from the group, is breaking bread. A two-handled cup is set on the table in front of him, along with two large platters containing two fish and five loaves. At either side of the table are baskets filled with loaves of bread.

Early Christians believed in burial of the dead, as opposed to the Roman practice of cremation. The catacombs, along roads outside the city of Rome, contain examples of Early Christian art. The people were poor, and they could not afford artists of high quality. Therefore, the images were primitive. The frescoes were underground, lit only by candle or torch. The atmosphere was unpleasant because of the odor of new burials. 

“Last Supper” (6th Century) (mosaic) (Basilica of St Apollinaire Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy) illustrates the continued development of Christian art. By the 6th Century, Christianity had become the dominant religion of Italy. Ravenna was the second major capital of the Christian world after Constantinople, in what was then Greece. St Apollinare Nuovo was reconstructed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. “Last Supper” is one of 13 mosaics telling the story of the of the passion through the resurrection. Christ was depicted wearing a robe of royal purple, a dye that was very rare and costly. Royal purple was forbidden to all but royalty. Christ also wears a gold trinity halo with three large green emeralds. The twelve disciples recline in Roman style around the table. The anatomical depiction was slightly improved over the earlier fresco, but three-dimensional space was several hundred years in the future. Peter, with the white hair and beard, has been established as being beside Christ. The twelfth figure, barely visible beside Peter, is Judas. Two fish on a plate and seven triangular loaves of bread are set on the white tablecloth. The scene, as in almost all Byzantine mosaics, is placed in front of a solid gold wall. The table is placed on a green lawn.

In 15th Century Italy, Renaissance artists developed a complete knowledge of anatomy and perspective to create realistic images. “Last Supper” (1486) (fresco) (Refectory wall of San Marco, Florence) (160”x320”) was painted by the Florentine master Dominico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494). Applying linear perspective, first realized c.1415 by Florentine painter and architect Filippo Brunelleschi, Ghirlandaio painted the twelve disciples and Christ seated, uncrowded, and together, at a long table. The table is set with wine glasses, loaves of bread, plates, and other food items. The disciples’ feet are visible under the edge of the elaborate woven tablecloth. The tradition of placing Judas at the opposite side of the table had been established. Rather than sharing the bread and wine, Jesus has just announced that one of the disciples would betray Him. The disciples, realistically represented as individuals, react to the pronouncement. At Christ’s right side, Peter holds his dinner knife in his fist, and the youngest disciple John is asleep.

Ghirlandaio sets the scene in a room of an Italian Renaissance villa, under an arched roof with a view to the outdoor garden. Four trees are orange trees, the oranges recognized as the Medici family emblem.  The six cypress trees were, and remain, a symbol of Tuscany. Tall and stately, the cypress trees can live for as many as 2000 years, and are the symbol of immortality. Their pleasant sent was thought to ward off evil and aid in the passage to the after-life. Another symbol of immortality is the peacock. One is perched in the window at the right. The peacock’s body did not seem to decay, and was considered a symbol of immortality. Peacocks were represented in Early Christian catacombs. Ghirlandaio painted several versions of the Last Supper, but only this one has a cat. It sits on the floor behind Judas and looks out at the viewer. Placed behind Judas, the cat was thought to represent Satan.

“Some Living American Women Artists” (1972) (collage) (28.25’’x42”) (MoMA) is by Mary Beth Edelson (1922-2021), an active participant in the women’s movement. Using Leonardo’s iconic “Last Supper” as a guide, she placed twelve photographs of contemporary women artists in the place of the disciples. She placed Georgia O’Keeffe in the position of Christ, but she did not designate any of the women as Judas. The twelve, starting from the left, are Lynda Benglis, Helen Frankenthaler, June Wayne, Alma Thomas, Lee Krasner, and Nancy Graves. Continuing beyond O’Keeffe are Elaine de Kooning, Louise Nevelson, M.C. Richards, Louise Bourgeois, Lila Katzen. and Yoko Ono. Photographs of 69 more contemporary women artists are placed in the border.  

Women artists are still working to achieve equality with men in the art market. This work by Edelson’s was a criticism of the politics of the art world, but it also was a great tribute to her contemporary women artists. The original piece was then produced as a poster, and it can be found in the collections of many museums. It has become iconic in its own right.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

 

 

 

It should be no surprise that the daffodil is the March birth flower. They are popping out all over the place. The daffodil is a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings since its bright yellow flower is the first flower to bloom in the Spring. The first day of Spring this year was March 19.  The daffodils also are a symbol of creativity, energy, resilience, vitality, good luck, and hope. The daffodil bulb has been known to flower every year for as many as 100 years. Daffodils are classified under the botanical name narcissus, as are jonquils.

Daffodils have been abundant in Europe and North Africa for centuries. The flower was very popular in London in the 17th Century.  Shakespeare, in his play The Winter’s Tale (1623), reminds the reader, “When daffodils begin to peer […] Why then, comes the sweet o’ the year.” The “Daffodil Tile” (1900) (earthenware) (Pilkington Tile and Pottery) was created by English artist Walter Crane (1845-1915), and it was part of a series of six tiles called Flora’s Train or Flora’s Retinue. Ten years earlier, Crane designed over 50 plates for the popular book Flora’s Feast: A Masque of Flowers (1899). The tile series was inspired by the book, and the six-tile design was the same image. The dancing lady among the yellow daffodils may have been inspired by William Wordsworth’s famous poem: “I wandered lonely as a cloud/ That floats on high o’er vales and hills, / When all at one I saw a crowd, / A host of golden daffodils; / Beside the lake, beneath the trees, / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” The UK remains the largest grower of daffodils today.

 “Black Vase with Daffodils” (1980) (oil) (66”x50’’) was painted by American artist Janet Fish (b.1938). She is well-known for her realistic still-life paintings featuring flowers and fruit arranged with a wide variety of reflective objects. This painting is an excellent example of the work that has made her so popular. Not only are the glass and silver items well rendered, Fish paid close attention to the specific details of daffodils. Daffodils have a very light scent and usually one flower per stem. The trumpet has six petals with pointed foliage. 

“Do remember they can’t cancel the spring” (March 23, 2020) is by English artist David Hockney (b.1937). He produced the image on his iPad, and   shared it with the world while he, along with everyone else, was isolating at home during Covid.  Four yellow daffodils spring from the fresh green earth to send a message that nature and we are resilient.

The Native American Totem Animal for those born between March 21 and April 19 is the falcon. Falcons have a history starting in Egypt’s Old Kingdom (c. 2686 BCE.). The god Horus is represented by the falcon, and the falcon represents swiftness, loyalty, fierceness, fearlessness, truth, and knowledge. Horus is the god of the sky. The Egyptian sculpture “Horus/Falcon” (663 BCE) depicts the falcon wearing the double crown of Egypt that represents the uniting of upper and lower kingdoms. When depicted with a human body, Horus has a falcon head. Horus is the protector of the Pharoah, and as the falcon he is frequently depicted standing behind the behind the Pharoah, his wings embracing the Pharoah’s head, as his protector. The falcon image commonly appeared on jeweled amulets worn as additional protection. In another representation, the Horus falcon was frequently represented by a single eye, because Horus’s right eye was the sun, representing power, and his left eye was the moon, representing healing. 

Falcons are smaller and have longer wings than do hawks, with which they are often confused. They were observed to fly very fast, having been tracked at 242 mph. Their eyesight is greater than humans, observable by their ability to see and catch prey that humans cannot see. By the 8th Century, falcons were used for hunting in Syria by the royal courts. “Ferocious Falcon” (18th Century) (Punjab Hills, India) (13”x9”) (watercolor) is one of many images of falcons used in the hunt. Falconry spread across the Islamic world to China, and eventually to Europe. The falcon wears a red leather hood decorated with a bead. It is perched on a block and tied with red leather jesses. Its sharp black beak can sever an animal’s neck. The sharp black claws can easily capture and hold prey.  The falcon seen in Egypt and Asia is a Lanner falcon.

The falcon species best known by Native Americans is the Peregrine falcon. The falcon is the first spirit animal in the Native American zodiac, and it represents the Spring Solstice. A symbol of great strength, it was thought to bring good luck and victory in warfare. Falcon costumes and masks were worn as preparation for a hunt or war. Shamans also wore falcon masks and costumes as part of their rituals.  “Falcon” (200 BCE to 500 CE) (Hopewell, Ohio) is identified as a peregrine falcon. It was found in Hopewell, Ohio, where 25 man-made mounds cover an area larger than 10 football fields. The first excavation took place in 1920-21, followed by excavations in the 1960s and 1970s.

“Falcon” was made by pounding copper nuggets to form the desired shape. The Hopewell Indians had not developed the technique of smelting ore. Copper was a sacred metal to Native Americans and it was used exclusively for ceremonial objects. The copper used to fashion “Falcon” came from Lake Superior, some 800 miles away. American Indian tribes believed copper had special powers. The copper falcon was considered a living thing, and was given a ceremonial burial.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.